Josip Juranovic has opened up on how he consoled heartbroken Daizen Maeda after Croatia’s World Cup penalty shoot-out victory over Japan.
The Celtic duo went head-to-head for a place in the quarter-finals and Maeda looked to have fired the Samurai Blue into the next round against their lacklustre opponents, striking three minutes before the break from close range after his side had dominated the opening 45 minutes.
The 2018 finalists levelled ten minutes after the interval thanks to Ivan Perisic’s thumping header. They couldn't be separated before the end of 90 minutes, and an extra half hour proved no more useful in finding a winner, so to the dreaded shootout the tie went. And the Croats kept up their recent winning habit in this tournament as Japan missed three spot kicks, allowing Mario Palasic to score the winner from 12 yards and set up a last eight date with favourites Brazil.
Maeda, who made his nation’s squad while clubmates Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate stayed at home, was devastated at the outcome. By contrast, Juranovic was over the moon, but made a point of seeking out Maeda and planting a kiss on his shaven head as the Croat revealed what he told the livewire striker.
“Daizen is my friend and I congratulated him because he scored a goal in the World Cup and that is every player’s dream,” he told the Daily Mail. "But I also felt sad for him because he was crying. Football is about sportsmanship and I gave him a little kiss.
“He is a good friend of mine and he had such a good World Cup with Japan. I feel sad for him tonight, but happy for Croatia. We made history tonight and now I have something I can say to my sons in the future that I did something beautiful.”
A regular penalty taker for the Hoops under Ange Postecoglou, Juranovic admitted that he was first in line to step up had the shootout gone to sudden death: I was sixth man in the queue,’ he said. ‘I actually wanted to take one because I take them at Celtic and I wanted to do it in the World Cup.
“I missed my last one against Real Madrid, but that’s football. Sometimes you miss, sometimes you score. I scored seven, I missed one, it happens.”
Despite the much fancied Brazilians standing in their way, Juranovis is now targeting a return to the final. Croatia were beaten 4-2 by France in Russia four years ago and the right back sees no reason why they can;t give themselves another shot at lifting the ultimate prize in football.
“Maybe we will do the same as they did four years ago by reaching the final. Why not?” He asked.
“From the first minute, we didn’t have the possession or the chances we wanted. We didn’t score and they did from one chance, but after that we got the game under control.
“We have a great mix of old and young players in this squad and we did everything we had to do.”
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